


Windows

by CharmyWizard



Series: Shattered [1]
Category: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Cartoon 2018), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Autism, Brothers, Comfort, Family, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Protective Leo, alluding to offensive language, autistic don
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:35:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25120225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CharmyWizard/pseuds/CharmyWizard
Summary: Some of us are born different, sometimes it takes a special family member to understand you. Some of us are just that luckybut when they were children, Leo had a hard time understanding Donnie. Not why he was so quiet  or why he never played with them. After some frustrations come to light Leo finally takes the steps to understand Donnie
Relationships: Donatello & Leonardo (TMNT)
Series: Shattered [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2109576
Comments: 6
Kudos: 88





	Windows

"MUMMY ATTACK!"

The large lair immediately filled with the squeals of young children. The source of the chaos was the five-year-old with red stripes over his eyes, and a large blue t-shirt now charging after a laughing four-year-old who was waving his arms excitedly as he ran away, "NO one can escape a mummy attack!" Leo shouted grabbing at Mikey who only laughed louder and ran faster, even for a four-year-old.

A six-year-old, far larger than either of the two boys, leapt out from behind the recliner, scooping up the four-year-old and turning to Leo in a blur of red, "I'll save you Mikey!" Raph pointed at Leo," Get the mummy!"

Leo threw his arms over his face as the giant mass suddenly fell on him, knocking all wind, life, and sense out of his body. Even if he had loss, he made sure to let out a over dramatic cough, "Foiled again! Curse you Lou Jitsu!" before letting out a loud 'bleh' and letting his head roll off to the side with his eyes closed

"'eo's dead!" Mikey shrieked, Leo could feel his small hands shaking him in panic," 'e killed him!"

"Leo's not dead." Raph always ruined his fun," He's playing dead."

"'he is?" Leo could feel Mikey peer closer at his face, he had played dead long enough he still waited till Mikey was poking him in the face before bolting upright, his hands brought up like claws with a snarl, "I'm alive!" he declared

Mikey shrieked again, diving behind Raph's legs. Before his light blue eyes peered around their oldest brother. Though Leo was laughing loudly Raph was giving him a frown, figures, "Leo don't scare Mikey! He's the baby!" Raph never knew how to play right

"Yeah! I'm da baby!" Mikey declared from his hiding location.

Despite his young age, Leo was more then adept at rolling his eyes, "it's a game! You're the one who wanted me to be the mummy. Next time ask Donnie."

Raph frowned, not yet capable of a glare, "you know he doesn't like that. He wanted to be alone."

"He ALWAYS wants to be alone." Sass was another one of Leo's natural talents. But despite himself he looked over to the far side of the lair where a curtain lay over a doorway. A designated 'quiet area' that Dad had set up a few months ago. Raph was already walking over, his constant shadow Mikey was waddling after him. Raph poked his head past the curtain, "Donnie do you want to play with us?" as Leo expected, he didn't get a response, "Ok but if you want to let us know" Raph ducked back out. Looking at Leo before smiling, "Come on! Let's go play Jupiter Jim!"

Raph was already running off with Mikey. Mikey would have no problem playing whatever Raph wanted. But Leo found himself glaring at the curtain and sticking out his tongue before running after his brothers

(#)(#)(#)(#)

They played for a while after that, but eventually Mikey wanted to play with paint. Not in the mood for being painted pink, but as usual Raph was, he went and read through some of his Jupiter Jim comics. Until the smoke wafting from the kitchen signified dinner was ready. Thankfully Dad had only managed to burn the salad, somehow, and left the grilled cheese sandwich mostly undamaged. Leo had only ever known one dad, his Dad, so he often wondered if another Dads were as round or tired looking as his. Whenever their Dad wasn't watching movies or playing with them, he was pouring over several books he had gotten from the 'internet'. Most of the titles didn't make sense to Leo, but he recognized one as a cooking book. Which had helped Dad's food to go from, 'tolerable' to 'tasty' as he tore into his grilled cheese. Raph, of course, was into his third already. Mikey was savoring each bite with a wide grin on his face. Splinter's sandwich was untouched mostly because he was too busy using it as a pillow. His black hair had started to resemble salt more then anything, and no amount of poking from Mikey could wake him up. Eventually Raph got sick of it, "Pop's sleepy let him go!"

"Food is for eating not for sleeping," Mikey said,

"Daddy's tired Mikey, he'll be ok." But it was hard not to hear the pride in Raph's' voice. Leo knew Raph well enough to know he craved moments like this, since it meant he could be in charge for a bit. But Leo glared across the table towards a second occupant who wasn't eating, "Why isn't' HE is eating then, he's not sleeping"

The object of scrutiny didn't look up from his book. Or look to the plate of plain bread by his hand. Donnie, unlike the others who liked to wear t-shirts and shorts, wore a giant purple hoodie that hung around his knees, the hood brought up over his head and eyes fixated on the pages of a book with words too complicated for Leo to understand.

"He's not hungry." Raph said, "he's fine."

"He's boring." Leo clarified. Sinking back into his seat and crossing his arms

With a giant snort Dad sat straight up, "It-wasn't-my-donut!'" before blinking, seeming to recognize he wasn't in a situation with a guilty pastry, "Um, right." Picking up his sanwich and, despite the fur that must have been caught in it, devoured it in one bite, before looking t his sons., "Finally! I knew I could cook something edible." With a proud look on his face, "WE will just not eat salad ever again." Before looking over his sons," did you all enjoy your dinner?""

"It was really good Pop!" Raph said happily, "It was really good!"

"Tasty!" Mikey agreed,

Despite how tired he looked, Splinter beamed happily,' Ha! Take that Rupert Swaggart! There's a new chef in town!" he looked around tile his eyes fell on the quiet son at the table. It was hard to see Dad's face fall, "Purple, you didn't eat breakfast. Are you really that unhungry?"

But, like when Leo had said something, Don didn't look up from his book. Instead he slid off his chair and walked away from the table. Leo frowned and crossed his arms again. It was one thing to ignore him, and he REALLY hated being ignored, but Dad had made a good dinner!

Splinter, to celebrate not burning down the kitchen, gave each of his remaining sons a small bowl of vanilla ice cream. Missing out on ice-cream might have seemed like a punishment to Leo, but he had never seen Donnie even look at a bowl. So instead he ate his treat greedily, and watched Splinter scrub the ice-cream off Mikey's' face.

When dinner and desert was all cleaned up, Mikey and Raph went to watch some tv with Dad. Which seemed fine except that Leo wasn't in the mood to hold still. Instead he thought of his comics. He hurried up to their shared bedroom to retrieve the next issue.

Their room was a usual mess, except for the bed for Don's corner, so its surprised Leo to see Donnie sitting on the floor fiddling with something in his hands. IT surprised him more to see his Jupiter Jim comics strewed on the floor around him. One of the comics on his lap, "What are you doing?!" he asked

Don stared at him before looking back to his hand. Leo reached forward and snatched the comic off his lap," These aren't yours stupid!" he snapped, he quickly flipped through the pages to check for tears, "you can't just take stuff that doesn't belong to you Donnie!"

"Leo?" figured mother Raph would come to investigate, "What's going on?"

"Donnie was touching my stuff!" Leo pointed, "Its my stuff! Not his!"

Raph looked over the scene, before looking back to Leo, "He's just looking at its Leo. He's not doing anything bad- "

"No! You always stand up for him but its' my comics! He never plays with us, he refuses to do anything other then sit alone by himself." He turned, looking to look at said brother, whose unreadable gaze was fixated on him, "You're stupid, and I hate you."

Donnie blinked at him, for the first time in his life Leo could see that Donnie's eyes were light brown, and even if his face was still silent and stoic, his eyes had begun to tremble with tears. In a dash, Donnie darted out of the room, ducking underneath Raphie's arms. "Donnie!" Raph shouted after him, before turning and glaring at Leo, "Y-You're a bully Leo!" before running after their brother.

Leo squeezed his eyes shut before kneeling. Picking up his comics off the ground. It wasn't his fault, Donnie shouldn't have been touching his stuff! It wasn't' his fault.

He was picking up "Jupiter Jim #192 The Never-ending Tale" when he saw something where Donnie had been sitting. Seeing as he had been messing with his comics, he didn't have a problem messing with Don's stuff. But when he picked it up, he recognized a small stacking of Lego bricks This one was only a few bricks tall with a blue brick. He had taken some cloth, probably from some sparse clothing and made it into a blue strip around the brick. There were two block dots where the eyes should have been.

Leo sat down hard on the ground for a moment. Before shifting around the comics some more to find a second brick figure, clearly made to resemble Jupiter Jim, he even had found a plastic piece to use as a helmet….

(#)(#)(#)(#)

Donnie didn't come out of his 'quiet place' for the rest of the night. And neither Raph or Mikey talked to him either not that he was really trying to either. Instead, after sitting alone thinking to himself, he wondered upstairs. His father was, surprisingly, still awake, and sitting at his desk. Even though their bedroom wasn't' the cleanest, it was nothing compared to the disaster of their fathers' room, clothes strewn over the floor and stacks of boxes in the corner, there was even a sword sticking out of the wall, for some reason a sword sticking out of the wall. His father was sitting at his desk, piles of thick books by his desk. Some of them, most of them, had Lou Jitsu on the cover. But there were also a few extra thick books with children on the cover 'one reading parenting for idiot's and you'. It was some sort of weird textbook like Donnie was already reading. Leo was having a hard time reading the cover. But the book in Dad's hands was a little bit easier to read. "A-Auti-sim?" He read out loud, "What's that? Why are you reading that?"

Dad gave a small sigh, one sadder then Leo had ever heard from him," I'm hoping it will help understand your brother.' He set the book aside and turned in his seat, 'You had a bad day Blue. You were very cruel to your brother today."

"I-I'm sorry."

"Did you apologize to Purple?"

"I-I." he couldn't lie. But his eyes started to burn, "He doesn't talk, he doesn't' play he sits in that stupid room all day. He doesn't even act like he feels anything. But=But he was messing with my comics…and and he made these" Leo stood on his tip toes and set them on Splinters desk. Splinter picked up the Jupiter Jim figurine, then the Little Leo, "I don't get it Dad."

"Some children, like Donnie, have difficulty communicating. They have sensory problems, and don't know how to connect to others. But if they want to connect with someone…...sometimes they try to communicate in anyway they can." He held the figurines out to him,

(#)(#)(#)(#)

Leo had never actually been in Donnie's Quiet Area, but it was made for Donnie. It was covered in boxes of weird old electronic items that Splinter had collected for him over time. There was also a set of headphones lying by a fully purple blanket. Which is, of course, where he found his brother. Donnie was curled up on the blanket, headphones over his head. Even in the low light he could see his blood shot eyes and wondered how long he had spent crying. Probably all night since Donnie didn't come to sleep in their room last night. The thought made his gut twist in guilt. Don took one look at him before rolling over onto his side, shell to him and hoodie over his head.

The five-year-old didn't move closer, but sat down on the ground, if it wasn't for his sweat pants the ground would have been a lot colder, "Hey Donnie." He started, keeping his voice low. Now out of fear of their brothers hearing him. But it was called Donnie's 'Quiet Area' for a reason, "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean what I said earlier…." He fiddled his thumbs together. He wasn't' sure if Donnie was even listening to him, "I don't always understand what you need. Only what I want…" he reached into his pants pocket. He saw Don's head tilt over his shoulder for a moment, probably fighting curiosity. Leo set the little Jupiter Jim figure on the ground, and the Little Leo besides it, "I think these are really cool. Did you make them?" Don was now looking at him fully before sitting up sliding the headphones off his head, " I'm sorry I yelled at you. I didn't know you were making anything so cool. "Leo reached back into his pants pocket, it wasn't as clean as his, actually it was mostly just green and purple and marker marking where he had tried to replicate the detail Donnie had made, he set it by the little Leo, "See? Now Little Me won't be lonely."

Even though his expression is still unreadable something in him lights up. He immediately scoots closer and picks up the Little Donnie and looks over it, Leo took the opportunity to look around again, he didn't realize before that the wires and electronics are organized. But in what way he didn't know, "What else do you like to do in here?"

Don looks at him again, but nothing more. Leo almost thought for a moment that Donnie was asking him to leave but wondered if Donnie was asking something…. Leo got up and looked around the room before seeing a box shoved between two disassembled stereos. He moves closer and makes sure to look at Donnie before pulling it out. In it are more bricks of multiple colors, but scrubbed so clean Leo can smell the disinfect, he sits down again in front of his brother, "Show me how you play, and we'll go from there alright?"

Its' obvious Don is still wary of him, but he sorts out all the pieces by shape and color and slowly starts to build. At first Leo isn't sure what he's supposed to do but adjusts to Donnie's subtle gestures and glances on what to put what piece where. Out of the corner of his eyes, Leo can see where Don has put up strange pictures on the walls, not in the typical sense of art, but it looked like he had drawn family members as cars. With Raph being a semi-truck and Splinter being a bug. Mikey was an airplane and Leo was, to his enjoyment, a racecar. He couldn't help but wonder how many hours Donnie spent staring at the drawings…did he put them up because he missed them? Did it have something to do with what Splinter said about not being able to communicate even though they were less than a few feet away? But it wasn't' too long before a strange noise comes from Donnie, one that Raph always got when it got close to meal time. "are you hungry?" Don gives him a blank look again, "You haven't eaten since last night, "Even then it had been just a few oyster crackers, "can I go get you a snack?" Donnie glances at his hands for a moment. It took Leo a little bit to catch on, "Oh you don't want to get your hands dirty. I get that." Not really, but he didn't want to say that, "What if I go find a food that won't make your hands dirty? Is that ok?"

Don sits up more, as though in trigged. Leo stood up and walked out of the room. But immediately realized his task was futile, a word he had heard in Lou Jitsu's Child Development Movie called "Lou Jitsu vs Child Illiteracy". He really couldn't cook on his own, the Ice Cream bomb of Mikey's' third birthday party banned everyone from cooking till they were Atleast ten. But the long yellow fruit on the counter caught his attention, he was sure Donnie love bananas but wasn't sure on how to make them…clean.

After a few mints of deep though he peeled the bananas and uses the back of a spoon to cut them into pieces into bowl. After that he grabbed a new spoon and hurried back to the Quiet Area, "Blue?" he stopped and turned to see his Dad looking at him from his recliner, 'What are you doing?"

"Donnie's hungry, he wants clean food." He held the bowl up for his father to see.

"You- "Splinter looks surprised, not that Leo can blame him, "You got him to speak?"

"No, but I can tell he's really hungry,"

"Oh, well um I'm very glad you figured out what he wanted to eat." Splinter turned back to the tv. But again, Leo can feel something is off. There was a sadness coming off his father that he wasn't sued to, it was the same sadness Leo had felt before when Dad had been reading that book. Was he sad he wasn't able to help? Leo walked over to the chair, lowering his cheek onto the arm rest, "Donnie loves you Daddy." He said, "Donnie loves all of us. He just doesn't know how to tell us yet."

Splinter looked back to him, again there's something about him that makes Leo sad. But slowly his father smiles and gently rubs his scalp, "I know, and I love all you."

Leo hurries back to don's quiet area where Donnie is still waiting of him, sitting o up on his knees eagerly and looking at the bowl in Leos' hands, "Clean food!" he sat down Nd held the bowl out, how's this?" he asked

That time. Leo almost gets a full smile

(#)(#)(#)(#)

**Ten years later**

What a freaking Day.

Donnie glared at his broken self-cleaning-toothpick. Of course, Raph would use an experiment he knew nothing about. What part of personal space did no one understand?! He didn't even use it as a toothpick, honestly, he didn't want to know what he had used it for only that it had come back to him with the same consistency of molasses.

Knowing Raph, he had probably used it in a microwave to see what would happen.

"Back tot eh dork cave I see?"

The purple masked ninja groaned under his breath and glanced towards his door to see a familiar snarky Leo leaning against his circular doorway, grinning his usual grin," find out what Raph did to your toothpick yet?"

"No and I don't think I want to know." It was a lost cause anyway, it was better just to start over. He pushed the destroyed device aside and laid his head on his desk with a loud moan. He could have flipped Leo off for chuckling like that but couldn't find the energy to lift his head up

"Come on D, you were going to start over anyway. We both know it. Now get out here so we can watch a movie."

Unfortunately, Leo was right, if only because every time he tried to use the tooth pick it tried to gain consciousness. He had never told Leo about ah problem, but like every other moment it seems like Leo can read him.

Another thing he had never told Leo was how grateful he was for that. His brothers didn't have the memory he did, so his childhood wasn't as clear to them as it was to them. But he could still remember when his bed rom was his 'quiet place' hiding back here for hours and working on whatever he wanted. His brothers, though eh had loved them, were often too loud and messy for him to handle. Now that he was older he understood what the problem had been, what was still the problem, but it had been like looking at his family through a window with them waving over occasionally to acknowledge him. He could see everything they were doing. But no matter how much he wanted to, he couldn't reach them.

But one day, after being so cruel Donnie almost cried himself sick. Leo had approached the window. He had taken time to finally understand what he needed. For a while after that, Leo was his protector, his translator for the world. A way for his brothers to understand him and for him to understand them. They had become unofficial twins. A nickname he had hated as much as he loved it.

He truly believed Leo reaching out helped him learn to communicate better, how to deal with his sensory issues. Though those problems still lurked in the back of his mind, every once in an awhile, he still couldn't handle loud noises and he still had problems talking to his brothers…

But that window had been opened.

Donnie looked at his desk, at the three brick figures that had been built so long ago and stood up, "Atta boy!" Leo cheered, turning to leave, "Now hurry- "Before he could stop himself, Donnie hugged his brother tight around the chest. Burying his face into his brother's shoulder rand squeezing him for all dear life. He could feel his brothers shock by the fact he lost his footing for a few seconds before freezing up, even so his brothers' arms came up around him back, cautiously returning the brace, "You ok? If it's the tooth pick, I swear Raph didn't drop it in the toilet- "

"Thank you." He mumbled. Donnie felt Leo tilt his head more in his direction, probably unable to hear him. So, despite his already waning pride, he spoke louder, with a tighter hug, "Thank you for everything Leo."

He half expected a sarcastic comment. Or maybe a bad joke. But instead Leo squeezed him back just as tightly, somehow a link that had existed since their childhood told Leo exactly what Donnie was talking about, "You're my favorite twin Donnie." He nuzzled his cheek against Don's, "I'd do anything for you."

"I know." For a few moments the two just stood there, even when Raph walked by, gave off an emotional 'aw' and slunk away to not disturb them. Donnie finally drew away, but before he could fully release Leo, his brothers' arms caught him around the chest again and squeezed tighter then before, "then its time for a movie!" eh declared, Hugging Donnie off his feet lifting him out of the room as Don squawked loudly," LEO YOU NEANDERTHAL- "

"MOVIE MOVIE MOVIE!' he chanted loudly, using his free arm to pump the air. Despite his embarrassment, and despite his brothers all collapsing in near laughter, he couldn't hate Leo for embarrassing him. He got his revenge later by kicking Leo off the bean bag they had shared, before reluctantly letting Leo join him again.

He was his official twin

He could never stay mad at him

(#)(#)(#)(#)

I haven't written anything here in a while, but this was a prompt from another website I thought would be fund to you, course it became personal for me for many reasons. But I hope you found it enjoyable 😊


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